Page 1 of 36

Equipment
You will want a pencil, a pen and paper. I started with Sharpies and index
cards. But Sharpies bleed through normal paper!

My favorite brands now are Micron and Tombow. If the pen’s product
description says, “archival ink,” you won’t get in trouble with fading (or
accidently washing).
When I get a new set of pens, I always test each size, to see how I feel about
the lines.

My first notebook was a Moleskine. They’re in many stores, so they are

easy to find. Now I use HandBook Travelogue and MUJI notebooks. MUJI
are so cheap you feel good about making bad drawings! HandBook has the
nicest paper, when you feel artsy.

Page 2 of 36
Page 3 of 36
Are You Afraid to Draw?

No one expects to sit down at a piano and play Chopin without practicing.
So why do you expect to draw wonderfully without doing your scales?

Like any skill, from piano to basketball, you have to practice.

Page 4 of 36
You will suck for a while.
But not forever.

Page 5 of 36
Start with Lines

If learning to draw is like learning to play piano, then lines are our scales.
Do them every day.

Begin by drawing lines in sets of five. Go in both directions, up and down.

Try to make the lines equidistant. Try to make diagonal lines, too.

Play with drawing the lines very close to each other, and very far apart.

Page 6 of 36
Overlap your lines to make grids. If the lines are equidistant, you’ll make
tidy squares.
Try making lines very long.

Fill pages with lines during boring meetings.

Page 7 of 36
Exercises
Listen to a song, and let your pen dance to it!

Page 8 of 36
Page 9 of 36
Page 10 of 36
Practice Making Shapes
Start with boxes.

Let’s think about how we make a box. Do you draw it all in one go, not
lifting your pen up? Is your last line sloppy?

Play with different ways to draw them. Draw the vertical lines equidistant,
then the horizontals.

Try drawing two L shapes. Does a certain technique make a better box?

Are you more accurate when you pull or push the pen? Left to right? Right
to left?

Page 11 of 36
Try to make small boxes and big boxes, but always stay square!
From here, you can try making rectangles.

Next try circles. Circles are really hard to draw… if you rush.
Go slow!

Keep circles tidy. Make sure the end point neatly touches the beginning
point.

Page 12 of 36
You don’t want your circles embarrassed because the other kids at school
say they are funny looking.
Finally, triangles. Making a triangle isn’t as hard as it looks.
Draw a line. Mark the midpoint. Make a dot above the midpoint where you
want your point. Now all you have to do is connect each end with the dot.

Practice your triangles. Make sure you close the corners!

Sierpinski triangle, fractal fans!

Arrows are just rectangles and triangles together.

Page 13 of 36
Or sometimes a triangle and a circle.

Page 14 of 36
3-D Shapes
Sometimes you need to make things 3-D. For example, if you wanted to
draw a package.
For a cube, draw a square, then half a square behind it. Connect the corners.

For a pyramid, the triangle’s bottom line gets a point as well.

Spheres don’t have hard edges to suggest 3-D surfaces. Give it a reflection,
or consider shading.

Page 15 of 36
Shadow & Texture
You can use lines to fill in shapes to create an illusion of shadow and depth.

In hatching, lines go one way. In cross hatching, they are perpendicular.

Stippling is made with dots. Scribbling is scribbling. But thoughtful
scribbling!
You can make the texture shadowy two ways. Lines that are closer together
look darker.

Page 16 of 36
You can also crosshatch in different directions, building up density.
Experiment!

Page 17 of 36
Exercise
Fill a page with squares, rectangles, circles and triangles. Play with rulers
and try freehand. Shade them. Fill with texture.

Page 18 of 36
Page 19 of 36
Go back to your wandering lines (from page 9), and fill them in with
patterns.

Page 20 of 36
Page 21 of 36
Draw to Relax.
There is a kind of drawing meditation called zentangles. In this practice,
you fill shapes with patterns.
This is a great way for you to practice your hand control.
And chill out.

Page 22 of 36
Page 23 of 36
Page 24 of 36
Go back to your wandering lines (from page 29), and fill them in with
patterns.

“I’m obsessed with the grid pattern on the paper. Practicing with grids
sometimes results in interesting mechanical insights thrice removed.”
—Daniel Cook, Chief Creative Officer (and Game Designer) at Spry Fox

Page 25 of 36